by Jeff Kaplan, CEO of LOZO, a free website that shows you ways to save money with tips, resources, coupons and more.
As most savvy shoppers know, Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) is the biggest shopping day of the year and a good time to find a deal. Last week, we talked about preparing for Black Friday, including tips to about comparison shopping, tracking the best deals and even finding great Black Friday deals early (sometimes weeks in advance).
Today, we’ll focus on the shopping you’ll actually do on Black Friday. We’ll cover some basics here, but you can also head over to LOZO for even more Black Friday tips.
- Scope Out the Store Before BF: Try to find time for a “dry run” of the stores a few days before Black Friday so you know where all your most desired items are located. You should also plan your route so you can get to the most important items the fastest. Be prepared to improvise on Black Friday though: sometimes big ticket items are moved to new locations for this day only.
- Arrive Early: If you’re serious about finding good deals, you’ll need to arrive early.
- Talk to Other Shoppers: If a store is only offering five of the item you’re shopping for and you’re number 20 in line, talk to the people in front of you to see what they’re planning to buy. If more than 5 of them are after the same item you are, then you may want to head to the next store.
- Plan Your Day Around the Sales: Stores often schedule their biggest “door buster” sales to end at different times. If one store’s big sale ends at 9am and another ends at 10am, hit the 9am store first so you can accomplish both. Save stores that have day-long sales for last.
- Grab Your Most-Desired Item First: If you’re shopping for multiple door buster items, pick up the item you want the most first, even if it means walking past another item on your list. Better to get the most important item and then back track to the lower priority items on your list to ensure you get what you really want.
- Shop with a Team: If you’ve got some able-bodied shoppers amongst your friends and family—join up with them for Black Friday shopping! One person can stay home and shop online while another heads to the store. Or, bring a few folks to the store so you can spread out and get all the items you want.
- Skip the Stores & Shop Online: We’ve saved the best tip for last. The truth is, most of the deals you’ll find in stores are also available online—even if the store claims they’re “in store only”. So rather than heading out to the mall, we recommend staying in the comfort of your own home (& still getting great deals!). Visit LOZO for more Black Friday online shopping tips, including the best times to shop, how to improve your chances of getting items before they sell out and much more.
Finally, remember to apply all of the shopping tips you’d use for other days of the year such as reading reviews of products to determine which product best meets your needs, comparison shopping to find the best price and always using coupons when they’re available (why not make a great Black Friday deal even better by stacking a coupon on top of it!).
Happy shopping!
Author Note
Jeff is the CEO of LOZO, a free website that provides the best money saving tips, deals, coupons and more.
In addition to checking out LOZO’s site, you can also find them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter or sign up for their money-saving tip of the day newsletter.